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Mega malls

Sat, Sep 7, 2013, 01:00

Sandra O'Connell

Some purveyors of retail therapy are more therapeutic than others. Dundrum is all very well, but West Edmonton Mall, in Alberta Canada, has not alone an amusement park and ice rink but also the world’s largest indoor water park and wave pool. How’s that for a way to deal with buyer’s remorse.

Of course, when it comes to providing added value to your shopping experience Dubai has it, in diamond encrusted spades.

Dubai Mall, home to more than 1,000 shops, has an ice rink, a theme park and the world’s largest suspended aquarium, home to 30,000 creatures including sharks.

The Mall of the Emirates, also in Dubai, is famous not alone for its shops but for its indoor ski resort, with five runs including the world’s first indoor black diamond slope.

The Piers Shops at Caesars in Atlantic City is modest by comparison but does have an indoor beach with deck chairs overlooking the Atlantic City sea on its third floor.

Meanwhile, the Mall of America in Minnesota boasts 7km of store fronts, plus mini golf, a flight simulator and a wedding chapel.

It also has two indoor theme parks, Nickelodeon Universe and Galaxyland, home to the world’s tallest, longest indoor rollercoaster, the Mindbender.

But size isn’t everything. The biggest of them all is the New South China Shopping Mall in Guangdong province.

It opened its doors – entered via a giant Arc de Triomphe - in 2005, with a mind-bending 2,350 units.

To date, 99 per cent of these remain empty, the wide concourses traversed only by tumbleweed, or the Chinese version thereof. There is however a McDonalds.